


In Case of Medda-ling, Always Keep Your Phone On...

by WritingToKeepMySanity



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Friends to Lovers, kinda i mean they definitely talk about a date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 04:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18792886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingToKeepMySanity/pseuds/WritingToKeepMySanity
Summary: ...Unless, of course, you accidentally swap phones with the really cute guy you made out with at the party last night.





	In Case of Medda-ling, Always Keep Your Phone On...

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from @garrisonbabe's tumblr: accidentally swapped phones with someone at a party and don’t realize until their mom calls in the morning and you spend like three hours talking to this hilarious woman about life and when you go to her house to return her kid’s phone wow the kid is the really good kisser from the party last night au

_"Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Joooleeennee—"_

Her alarm was all wrong.

First, it was Saturday, so it shouldn’t have been going off at all. Second, she couldn’t get up for anything less than the droning beep that was typically set for her alarm, she would never set it to— _was that Dolly Parton?_ —and third… Katherine squinted blearily at the screen phone on the nightstand.

She didn’t know anyone named Miss Medda.

Katherine swiped her thumb across the screen, taking the call. “…Hello?”

There was a long pause on the other line. “Well, you’re not my boy,” a voice finally said.

“No…” Katherine said, scraping a hand through her hair. She was too hungover and not awake enough for this. “I’m sorry, can you hold on a moment?” Without really waiting for an answer, she sat up, pulling the phone away from her ear to look at it,

Katherine groaned. This wasn’t even her phone. The case was splattered with paint and the screen was cracked in the corner. 

Something tugged at the corner of her mind, a teasing comment about paint being everywhere and  _Can't take you anywhere, huh_? and she almost caught a name with the slightly blurry face but it slipped away before she could grab hold of it.

Rubbing her forehead with one hand, Katherine brought the phone back to her ear. “I’m sorry—Miss Medda, right?—It looks like I picked up your son’s phone by accident.”

Miss Medda laughed over the line. “Can’t say I’m surprised. That boy would lose his head if it wasn’t attached to his shoulders. So, who have I really got?”

 

~*~

 

Katherine wasn’t entirely sure how it happened, but after almost two hours of talking on the phone with Medda (the woman had a _lot_  of stories, each one more far-fetched than the last), she was sitting in Medda’s kitchen, drinking tea and talking.

She’d really only stopped by to drop off the phone, and get hers back, but Medda’s son wasn’t back yet.

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Medda assured her, setting a mug of tea in front of her. “He was up and out early this morning, I’ll bet he didn’t even realize he had the wrong phone.”

“Thanks. It’s fine, I was just…” _Sleeping off a minor hangover_  didn’t sound like the right thing to say to the woman, so Katherine settled for “Studying today, nothing too important.”

The front door opened and voices filtered into the kitchen. “Is that you, Jack?” Medda called.

The other voice grew louder as he walked towards the kitchen. “Yeah, it’s me, Medda. I got Crutchie and Davey with me, we’re just gonna—”

Katherine didn’t hear what they were going to be doing, because Jack walked into the kitchen then, and her heart skipped a beat before plummeting into her stomach.

Medda’s son was _Jack Kelly_? 

Jack Kelly, thorn in her side–turn–reluctant friend–turn–guy she made out with at the party last night–turn–guy she might possibly but definitely kind of liked? 

It made sense, when she thought about it. The party had been hosted by Spot and Race, who Jack was friends with as well, and that explained paint on the phone—Katherine had teased him about coming straight from the art studio.

_"Can't take you anywhere, huh?" she said drily, taking a sip of whatever was in the cup Race pressed into her hand as soon as she entered._

_Jack looked down at his hands and jeans, splattered and smeared with dried paint. "What, you plannin' on takin' me somewhere, Pulitzer?" he asked, smirking. "'Cause I dunno how many'a these parties you's been to, but 'nother fifteen minutes an' Spot an' Race'll be in one'a these rooms, so ya might wanna get movin'..."_

_She rolled her eyes, cutting him off. "You're an ass, Kelly," she said, though there wasn't much malice behind her words._

_"So I's heard."_

She felt her face flush up to her roots, and she wished she could melt into the floor. 

Jack looked just about as mortified as she did, so that made her feel a little better.

“Uhm… Kath’rine, right?”

Nodding quickly, Katherine stood, picking up his phone and holding it out awkwardly to him. “I took your phone by accident last night. At the party.” She winced slightly, sure that her cover-up of studying from before was blown.

What the hell, why was she so flustered by seeing him again?

He looked at her, confused, a slight furrow in his brow.

_Oh, god, he forgot. He was drunk and he has no idea…_

“Anyway,” she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, still holding his phone out to him. “Can I get my phone? It has a white case…”

“Yeah, no,” Jack shook his head quickly, taking his phone. “Sorry, I just thought I gave your phone to Medda ‘fore I left, told her ta give it to ya if ya called.” 

They both turned to Medda—his foster mother, she remembered him mentioning in passing now—who took an innocent sip of tea.

“Oh, that’s right,” she turned to pick up Katherine’s phone from behind a bread box. “I must’ve dropped it back there after I made breakfast. Here you go, darlin’.” Medda handed it to Katherine, who nodded shortly.

“Thank you. Well, I should go, you know… studying, I have a lot of studying to get done, so I’m going to go do. That. Studying. Okay, bye.”

Face still red, Katherine ducked her head, side-stepping Jack on her way out of the kitchen, rushing past the two boys—and oh,  _that_ Davey, she knew him, that was _great_ , everyone was here to see her embarrassment, just great—out of the apartment.

Jabbing the button for the elevator, Katherine scrubbed her hands over her face, kneading the headache that was forming behind her eyes.

This was _not_  her life. It couldn’t be.

“Hey! Pulitzer!”

She squeezed her eyes shut a moment, hoping she would open them and be back in her dorm, waking up from a bad nightmare. And preferably not hungover. 

But when she opened her eyes and slowly turned around, Jack was there, hands stuffed in the pockets of paint-splattered jeans.

He was an art major, she remembered. Which explained why paint was on… everything he owned, apparently.

She must have been giving him a weird look, because he faltered a moment before saying, “Uh, Kath’rine, sorry.”

Furrowing her brow, Katherine asked, “For what?”

Jack scuffed his foot against the carpet. “I, uh, meant ta say Kath’rine, not… Pulitzer. Figure afta’ last night—seemed kinda harsh, I guess.”

“You… remember last night?”

He scoffed a little laugh. “Uh, yeah I ‘member last night. Wha–are ya sayin’ _you_  forgot?”

“Yeah, right. It’d be pretty hard to forget—” _Oh shit._ She needed coffee. She needed to go back and not answer the phone. She needed to fucking _melt_  into the floorboards right now.

So why the hell did she _want_  to kiss that stupid smirk off his face?

( _Right,_  because turns out Jack Kelly could use his mouth for something other than annoy her and he was _damn_  good at it…)

“ _Oh,_  so you’s sayin’ I’m unforgettable, huh?” Jack asked, rocking back on his heels.

The elevator opened behind her and Katherine thanked whoever was listening for small miracles. “I’m saying you’re still an ass, and I have to go.” She stepped onto the elevator and reached over to hit the lobby button. 

Just a split second before she could, though, Jack hopped onto the elevator behind her, and the doors slid closed behind him.

Katherine stared at him. “What are you doing?”

He looked slightly startled by his own actions as well and stuttered a bit. “I… uh. I dunno yet?”

“Comforting.”

“I… Last night,” Jack started, and she cut him off with a wave of her hand. 

“It’s fine, we don’t have to talk about it, it’s a one-time thing, it won’t happen again—”

“No, but I… want it ta happen again.” Jack winced as Katherine gaped at him. “That. Went a lot smoother’n my head, but, uh. Yeah. ‘less… You don’t wan—?”

“No!” Katherine said quickly, shaking her head before backpedaling as his face fell slightly. “I mean yes, I… I mean…” _Fuck it. In for a penny…_ “I’m free tomorrow? For coffee, or… whatever.” 

His eyebrows shot up as her words registered with him, and he bounced on his toes a bit, nodding. “Yeah! Uh, yeah, that… Good, yeah, I’ll text ya tomorrow?”

She bit her lip against a smile, nodding. “Yeah, here,” she said, pulling her phone from her hoodie pocket, tapping through to her contacts. “I don’t actually have your number.”

“Nah, just stole my phone so ya’d have a reason to talk to me, right?” he teased, taking her phone and plugging in his number as the doors slid open again.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Just like Cinderella, except I’m too attached to my shoes to leave those lying around.” She took her phone back as she stepped off the elevator. “So. Tomorrow?”

“Ya ain’t gonna turn into a pumpkin at midnight, are ya?”

“Are you?” She shot back, raising an eyebrow in challenge. His laugh bounced off the walls of the elevator as the doors closed one last time.

She made it just outside the building before she paused on the sidewalk, finding his newly-minted contact in her phone and typed out quickly.

_Katherine: Also, change your ringtone. Dolly’s bigger than Jolene, that’s just insulting._

**Author's Note:**

> this kinda got really popular on tumblr?? which I wasn't expecting?? so I decided to cross-post here!!! 
> 
> (fun fact, Medda is a huge Dolly Parton fan, hence the ringtone. and for anyone following the piano man story, the piano at the bar is named—by Jack—Jolene)
> 
> I'd love to know what you think!! Say hi to me on tumblr! @wordshakerofgallifrey 
> 
> xx


End file.
